This week, Sealaska Heritage Institute released the results of a three-year project designed to help students learn the basics of formline -- the design elements around which most Northwest Coast Native art is built. The in-depth educational resource, designed for students in grades 5-8, was introduced to teachers from around the state Monday by Juneau School District art teacher Nancy Lehnhart during the 10th annual Basic Arts Institute at the University of Alaska Southeast on Monday.

The CCW welcomes reader-submitted images of art in unusual or unexpected places. Photographers of all levels of ability are invited to send in images of natural or urban subjects that they find artistically inspiring or intriguing. Submit images to amy.fletcher@juneauempire.com.

TENAKEE SPRINGS - If you've visited Tenakee Springs recently, you've probably noticed the work being done on the historic Snyder Mercantile Building, and if you remember what it looked like a few years ago, you probably noticed that it's substantial.

Coastal Alaska. We are fish snobs here. No two ways about it. We don't eat farmed salmon and we are suspicious of people who do. We avoid surimi because we know where it's been. We'd no more eat tilapia than we'd drink the effluent it grew in. We are the sommeliers of sockeye. When the waiter says, "White or red?" we think he means king salmon and ask what river system it came from.